The Burnaby South Rebels held a slim 68-67 advantage over the Winston Churchill Bulldogs with about a minute and a half remaining on the clock in the finals of the Telus Basketball Classic.

At that point, I was sitting on the press row next to tournament director Howard Kelsey, and while his mind was most likely preoccupied with thoughts of post-game speeches and scholarship presentations, he couldn’t help but just sit back and enjoy the barnburner that was unfolding before him.

“This couldn’t have been a better end to the tournament,” said Kelsey, summing up in words what the writers around him, the fans above him, and the players and coaches in front of him were surely thinking.

Burnaby South used a huge fourth quarter from its grade-11 players to gut out a 77-75 win over Churchill in the championship final of the 14th-annual Telus Basketball Classic, held at UBC’s War Memorial Gym on Saturday night.